I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 

#f ,,; 'i? fw»3M |o J 

$ Z. | I 

| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^ , 




THE 



BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



/& 






ILLUSTRA TED. 



V 






NEW YORK: 
DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY, 

751 BROADWAY. 






Q LI21 
M4-V 



Copyright, 187b, Dodd, Mead, &■ Company. 






Press of Rand, Avery, and Company, Boston. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



i. Coral Gonipora Columna Frontispiece. 

2. Tropic Scene page 7 

3. A Polyp 9 

4. Section of Polyp 12 

5. Coral Formation 13 

6. Coral after Polyp has died 14 

7. Polyp inhabiting the formation shown in previous 

picture 15 

8. Madrepora Aspera 17 

9. Dendrophyllia Nigrescens 19 

10. Spontaneous Fission 20 

11. Brain Coral 21 

12. Caryophyllia 22 

13. Alveopora Verilleana 23 

14. Xenia Elongata 25 



6 LTST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

15. Tribipora Fimbriata 27 

16. Organ Pipe Coral ■ • 29 

17. Red Coral 3* 

18. Hydra 37 

19. Plumularia Falcata 39 

20. Fringing and Barrier Reefs . ^ 4 2 

21. Coral Leaf 45 

22. Sea Cucumber 49 

23. A Coral Island and Lagoon 55 

24. Fragments of Coral Rock 56 

25. An Elevated Coral Island 59 

26. The Old Hat 73 

27. Frigate Bird 79 

28. Stormy Petrel 81 

29. Gannet and Young 83 

30. Bandworm 85 

31. Scarlet Serpulse 88 

32. Sea Urchin and Rosy Feather Star 89 

33. View on the Island of Oatafu 91 

34. View on Island of Fakaafo 95 

35. The Tuitokelau 99 

36. View on Island of Oatafu 103 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



T^AR away from 
these snowy re- 
regions, where 
there is perpet- 
ual summer, are 
many islands ly- 
ing in the broad 
ocean. Some, 
only just lift- 
ing themselves 
a few feet above 
the water, are 
so low that a 
ship might pass near and hardly see them, 
except for the few cocoa nut trees that grow 




8 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

upon them. But though the sailor may be 
weary of long days and nights of tossing on 
the unquiet sea, he does not hail this land 
with joy ; — for these islands, beautiful as they 
seem, are full of danger. Many a good ship 
driven by the tempest has struck upon them 
as they lie almost invisible in the storm, and 
has been dashed to pieces, and many a brave 
sailor has awakened from dreams of home only 
to find himself sinking and drowning in the 
cruel waves. 

How came these islands there ! They are 
coral islands, and are the work of millibns of 
little animals ; — of animals so small that a 
little child might hold several in her hand. 
And now let us see what animals they are 
that do such wonderful things, and what we 
can learn about them. 

Nearly all coral is made by polyps. You 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



have seen, of course, a garden aster in blos- 




som. Well, the top, or disc, as it is called, 
of a polyp is very much like the blossom of 



IO THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

the aster, not only in shape and appearance, 
but in color, for polyps are of different colors ; 
— some as bright as the rainbow, while others 
are almost colorless. Instead of the slight 
stem which supports the aster, however, the 
polyp has a stout body nearly as large as its 
disc, the bottom of which is firmly anchored 
to some rock. You will get a good idea of its 
shape from the picture on the page before this. 
Polyps vary greatly in size. In some rare 
cases the disc is fourteen inches in diameter, 
while in others it has only the diameter of a 
small fraction of an inch. In the centre of 
the disc you notice an opening. This is the 
mouth of the animal, for we must not forget 
that it is animal though it looks so much like 
a flower. The many sharp-pointed projections 
around the mouth which compose the disc 
are called tentacles, and each one is armed 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. II 

with many little lances or lassos tipped with 
poison. Woe to the unfortunate little crab 
who ventures too near. A hundred lassos are 
hurled at him — stupefied or killed by the poi- 
son, the tentacles seize him, and push him 
into the open mouth. This mouth is tooth- 
less, and opens directly into the stomach, and 
as the polyp is very elastic it is capable by 
stretching, of swallowing an animal as large 
as itself. When it has digested the meat of 
its unfortunate victim, it opens its mouth 
again, and pushes out the bones and other 
indigestible parts. 

If one should cut suddenly, with a sharp 
knife, through the body of a polyp, it would 
look like the illustration on the next page* 
The dark oval in the centre of the picture 
is the stomach, which is connected with 
the outer part of the body by a series of 



12 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

muscles, which pull it open to receive food, 
or contract it to expel the remains of 
its repast. When the polyp is attacked, by 
means of another set of muscles in its skin, 
it withdraws its tentacles, rolling its body up 




over them, and so becomes merely a shape- 
less lump. After a time, when the danger 
is gone, opening its mouth it swallows a 
quantity of sea water, and so expands itself 
to its natural size. 

Having examined the polyp, we will next 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



l 3 



examine the coral which it forms. Here 
is a picture showing three of these coral 
formations, where the polyp itself has died 
and its body been washed away by the 




waves. In the one which faces you can be 
seen a hollow in the centre. This was where 
the bottom of the stomach rested, for the 
coral is always formed at the very bottom of 



14 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

the polyp below its stomach. How the 
polyp forms this coral is not exactly known. 
But though it seems wonderful to us that a 
little animal should thus form stony matter 
from its food, it is not more strange than 
that man should form his bones, and that 




they should increase in size. Coral is the 
bones of the polyp, and the little animal 
forms it by precisely the same process as 
that by which the bones in man are formed. 
Here we have another picture of a coral 
after the polyp has died. You will notice that 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 1 5 

although it is of a different species from the 
one last pictured, it is in most points similar. 
It comes from the Florida reefs, and in the 
picture is three times as large as it was in 
reality. The polyp who owned it is shown 
here. 



The way in which young polyps come 
into the world is this. A swelling begins on 
the side of a grown animal. It increases in 
size; presently a mouth opens; then come a 
set of tentacles, and the young polyp, now 
fully equipped, begins life on his own account. 



l6 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

As the young does not separate from its 
parent, and has many brothers and sisters 
about it, and as these in turn become parents, 
great masses of living animals are formed, 
which sometimes spread broadly, and again 
take branching forms like trees. 

The foregoing is that of a species where a 
parent coral growing upward has given out 
young ones all around it as it grew. Then 
two or three of the young, perhaps more 
lusty than their fellows, have commenced to 
grow, and have themselves given out young, 
and so formed branches ; and this process 
continually going on results in tree-like 
forms as we see them in the picture. 

The coral formed by another species of 
polyp is represented in the next illustration. 
The mode of growth is here precisely the 
same as in the last, only as the polyp be- 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



l 9 



longs to a dif- 
I ferent species, 
it gives birth to 
young at longer 
I intervals. Some 
I species, instead 
J of thus growing 
upward, broad- 
en until a 
mound is form- 
|ed, in some 
I cases twenty 
feet across. In 
such a mass as 
this there are 
I millions of liv- 
|ing polyps. 

There is an- 
other way in which polyps increase, which 




20 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

is called spontaneous fission, and which will 
surprise you very much. 
The disc of the polyp be- 
gins to extend on one side, 
then another mouth opens 
in it, finally another set 
of tentacles surrounds the 
new mouth, and the new 
disc separates entirely from 
the old. While the discs 
are thus growing apart a 
new stomach is forming 
beneath the new mouth, 
and by the time that their 
I separation is complete the 
new polyp is in every way 
prepared to earn his own 
I living. This picture rep- 
resenting the polyp during the various stages 




THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 21 

of the process give a good idea of the way in 
which it comes about. 




This mode of increase is the common kind 
in the large Astraea tribe, of which a sped- 



2 2 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

men is shown here. This species forms vast 
mounds and hemispheres, sometimes ten or 
twenty feet broad, and the animal may often 
be seen in the different stages of division, 
now the new mouth just beginning to be 




formed in the disc, and now the two disc> 
just finally separated and distinct. 

It is in these ways that the intricate forms 
— the branching trees, the leaf- like clusters, 
the delicate network, and the huge mounds 
of coral are formed. Strange and wonderfu 
as they may seem at first, they are all easil / 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 23 

accounted for if we only bear in mind the 
way in which polyps increase and grow. 

The pictures so far have given a magni- 




fied vkw of the discs of only two of different 
kinds of polyps. But there are very many 
species. On the preceding page is one 
called Caryophyllia, which grows in the Me- 
diterranean, and is sometimes found still fur- 
ther north ; and next we have a view of a 



24 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

species called Pontes, in which you will notice 
that each of the little stars is a distinct animal. 

This species is distinguished for making 
the lightest coral known, and in some cases it 
is even spongy. 

In addition to the polyps already described, 
there is another great family which, though 
they do little toward adding to the material 
of the coral reef, are by far the most beauti- 
ful of all. They are flexible, and wave to 
and fro as the waters are disturbed. They 
are of the most beautiful colors imaginable 
— yellow, scarlet, purple, crimson, brown — 
nearly every shade is seen. Some cannot 
stand upright, but hang like clusters of 
brilliant moss over the coral ledges, so that 
the gazer seems to see buds of brilliant flow- 
ers beneath the wave. In the large picture 
we have a sketch of one of this family. It 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 27 

grew in the Fejees, and in life the tentacles 
were a pale brown which was shaded off at 
their extremities into a dark and much richer 
shade of the same color. 

This family are called Alcyonoid, and they 




can always be distinguished from other polyps 
in two ways. They have always exactly 
eight tentacles, and these tentacles are always 
fringed with delicate hair. This you will see 
from this picture. Some Alcyonoids are 



28 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

divided up largely into branches which are 
soft and flexible like the human hand, and 
being usually of a pale color, are known by 
the name of " dead men's fingers/' 

In addition to these points they are dis- 
tinguished from coral-making polyps, by the 
very important fact that while the former 
cannot live at a depth of greater than one 
hundred and twenty feet, and in water below 
a temperature of sixty-eight degrees, these 
Alcyonoids are found in profusion at a depth 
of thousands of feet, and in the colder seas of 
the North. 

In the next picture is given a specimen 
of this same family, in which the polyps form 
vertical tubes, which are bound together at 
intervals. This is called organ-pipe coral, 
from its resemblance to the pipes of an 
organ. The left-hand picture of the two is 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 29 

an example of this ; while the right-hand one 
is the polyp which makes the formation, 
much enlarged. 

There is one more illustration, which we 
must give before finally dismissing the polyp, 
and that is of the red coral. 




The large figure, which is given only in 
outline in the picture (see page 31), shows 
the branching forms in which this coral is 
made. These are covered thickly with polyps, 



30 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

a magnified representation of several of which 
is seen in the lower left-hand corner. 

The red coral grows chiefly in the Medi- 
terranean, though it is found in other seas, 
and is obtained by diving and also by a rude 
net. This is formed of two heavy beams 
placed at right angles with one another, 
and covered with net-work, pieces of rope, 
and long strings of hemp. 

To these beams heavy weights are at- 
tached, and the rude contrivance thus sunk 
is dragged after the vessel, breaking off frag- 
ments of the coral, which become entangled 
in the net-work, and so are brought to the 
surface. 

The chief seat of the coral fishery is off 
the coast of Algiers and Tunis. Over four 
hundred small vessels are thus employed, 
leaving port in the early spring, and con- 




RED CORAL,. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. $$ 

tinuing their labors till the autumnal gales, 
which would prove too severe for their frail 
barks, force the fishermen to return. Every 
few weeks the coral is despatched to the 
manufactories at Leghorn, where, under the 
hands of skilful workmen it is made into 
various forms of jewelry. The deep red 
color is more highly esteemed in India, to 
which country large quantities are sent ; 
while the pale rose color is the favorite 
among Europeans. Over four thousand men 
are engaged in the coral fisheries, and as 
much as forty tons are gathered yearly. 
Several curious beliefs are current among 
the fishermen, such as the idea that the 
coral is soft, but becomes hard through terror, 
when taken. They have also a legend that 
at the foot of Mount Alban, in a deep grotto, 
is growing a huge coral tree, large and strong 



34 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

as an oak, which extends its arms when no 
danger is nigh, but withdraws them at the 
slightest approach of an enemy; and it is no v 
unknown thing for credulous fishermen to 
waste their time in vain attempts to find and 
secure this rare prize. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 35 



CHAPTER II. 

IV T OW let us see what we have learned 
about polyps ; that they are animals 
having a mouth and stomach ; that they digest 
their food, and from it form coral by the same 
process as that by which the bones in man 
are made ; that they are armed with poison- 
tipped lassos as a means of defence, and that 
when attacked they withdraw as it were into 
themselves, offering no point of vantage. We 
have seen how they increase by budding, and 
by spontaneous fission, thus forming all the 
many varied forms of trees, leaf cluster and 
intricate net-work. We have seen that the 
discs vary greatly in size, and by means of the 
pictures we have had plainly brought before 



36 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

us some of the many varieties and species 
of polyps that exist. 

It is evident that the many shapes in which 
coral is formed could not exist were the animal 
immovable. It follows then, that the polyp 
has the power of rising upward on the coral 
which it has made. In this way it often hap- 
pens, that a polyp which is only a quarter of 
an inch in height, will be found on top of a 
coral branch several inches in length. As 
long as the polyp lives, there is absolutely no 
point at which it must stop. It may even 
grow till the surface of the water is reached, 
though then it will probably die of exposure. 

Polyps are not the only coral makers. 
We have next a picture of a Hydra, an animal 
which is seldom more than half an inch in 
length, and is furnished with long slender ten- 
tacles. If any part of this animal is broken 



THE GUILDERS OF THE SEA. 37 

off, a«new part grows in place of what is lost, 
while the broken part grows into a new and 
complete animal. 

Though it is very unimportant as a coral 




maker in comparison with polyps, it still 
forms corals of beautiful shapes, as may be 
seen from the following picture of a species 
called Plumularia. 

There are, beside those we have men- 
tioned, two other organisms^that form coral, 



38 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

Bryazoans and Nullipores; but both are 
such small producers in comparison with 
those we have described, as to deserve only 
passing mention. The Bryazoan is an animal, 
while the Nullipore is a vegetable which 
grows vine-like over the coral formations, 
but is so largely formed of lime as to be 
brittle to the touch. 

The species of coral makers that form 
reefs and islands will not grow in water that 
at any time of the year falls below the tem- 
perature of sixty-eight degrees ; consequently 
the coral islands are all situated in or near 
the tropics, and the most vigorous species 
grow immediately near the equator, where the 
water reaches its greatest heat. It has been 
found by actual soundings too, that they can- 
not exist at a depth greater than one hun- 
dred and twenty feet. Nor can they exist 




PLUMULARTA FALCATA. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 4 1 

near the mouth of a river where sediment is 
apt to be formed. They require pure ocean 
water, and especially delight in channels and 
lagoons, and in the shallow waters near the 
breakers, where they grow to perfection. 

We have no definite knowledge as to 
the rapidity with which polyps form coral, 
Doubtless some species secrete it much more 
rapidly than others; and doubtless too, many 
causes, such as the difference of temperature, 
the purity of the water, etc., combine to make 
the growth of the same species different in 
different cases. In the year 1793, the British 
frigate Severn was wrecked off Turk's Island. 
In 1857, descents were made to the wreck 
by divers in armor, and the middle part of 
the ship was found covered with what ap- 
peared to be a forest of coral, many of the 
branches being four inches in diameter and 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



- 






sixteen feet in height. " To 
look among it from below 
reminds one of ' a thick 
growth of heavy timber," 
said the diver who explored 
the wreck. This coral was 
formed by Madrepores, a 
species of which a picture 
was given on page 17. We 
see that in this case sixteen 
feet were formed in sixty 

I four years, a growth of three 
inches a year, but we do 

] not know but the corals did 
not commence to grow till 

I a long time after the ship 

j was wrecked, nor do we 
know whether all species 
grow at the same rate. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 43 

And now let us examine a coral reef. In 
this picture we see on the right hand a reef 
close to the shore. This, as fringing the shore, 
is called a fringing reef. On the left we 
notice a reef lying out at a distance from 
the land. This is called a barrier reef, and 
between it and the shore is a quiet lagoon in 
which a ship might find a safe anchorage in the 
wildest storm, for while the billows are lashed 
to fury outside the barrier, inside all is calm. 

All barrier reefs do not lie as close to the 
island as in this picture. Some are even ten 
miles from the shore, so that between them 
and the land lies quite an inland sea. 

These barrier reefs are beds of coral that 
have grown until they reached the surface. 
Then the waves dashing over them, receding 
have carried off fragments of rock and sand, 
which the returning wave has washed back 



44 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

again. In process of time these accumu- 
lations have risen to a height of several feet 
above the sea level, and a beach is formed 
sloping down to the water edge. Outside of 
the reef, in the deep water, lie beds of coral, 
all growing slowly but surely" upward. Over 
them all dash the tumbling billows, tear- 
ing and grinding — carrying off fragments to 
throw up on the beach to add to its height 
and firmness. With such force do the bil- 
lows strike on these reefs that often after a 
storm the water presents a milky look for 
miles out at sea, owing to the fine grains of 
coral which it has worn away from the reefs 
during the storm. 

Often the force of the waves tears chan- 
nels through these barrier reefs, and through 
these the pure ocean water passes to and fro, 
bringing fresh nutriment to the growing 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



45 



coral within the lagoon. It is within the 




lagoon that the corals grow most vigorously. 
Here in the quiet waters nearly all species 



46 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

flourish — some have . already reached the sur- 
face, and the animals have died of exposure ; 
others are but a few feet from the surface, 
while others again are far below the wave. In 
some places the lagoons have almost ceased 
to be lagoons, so many corals are above the 
water level. On the preceding page is a picture 
of such a lagoon. Sometimes a single branch 
of coral will rise to the surface, while all around 
it is deep water. On one occasion a United 
States war vessel, in entering a lagoon through 
a channel in the reef, struck violently against 
some obstacle with such force as to tempora- 
rily stop the ship. Soundings were at once 
made but nothing was discovered, all around 
being deep water, and it was then seen that 
the ship must have struck against some iso- 
lated column of coral with such force as to 
break it off, though it was strong enough to 
stop the vessel under full sail. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 47 

These coral reefs and lagoons are of great 
advantage to the islands which they surround. 
The earth washed down from the hills and 
brought down by rivers instead of being car- 
ried out to sea and lost, settles in the lagoons 
and helps to fill them up, so that often large 
areas of new lands are added to islands. 
Then too, these lagoons are excellent train- 
ing schools for seamanship, and so we find in 
the coral islands of the Pacific, a bold race of 
mariners who make voyages of hundreds of 
miles in the open sea, in rough boats of the 
most primitive construction. These lagoons, 
too, abound in fish, and at low tide the na- 
tives wade out with spears, and obtain rare 
sport and rich booty. It is from these lagoons 
that is obtained a species of food that is 
very popular in China. We mean the beche- 
de-mer, or as the Chinese call it, trepang. 



4^ THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

Of this, hundreds of tons are gathered from 
the coral reefs of the East Indian seas yearly, 
and find their way into soups and stews for 
the Oriental palate. Trepang are sometimes 
called sea slugs or cucumbers, from their 
shape. They vary in length from six inches to 
two feet or more, and live just beneath the 
sand, with the head projecting, on which 
grows a flower-like cluster. Dumont d'Urville 
gives an interesting account of the trepang 
fisheries. " During my excursion around 
Raffles Bay," he says, " I had remarked small 
heaps of stones surrounding a circular space. 
Their use remained a mystery until the 
Malayan fishers arrived. Scarce had their 
proas cast anchor when, without loss of time, 
they landed large iron kettles about three feet 
in diameter, and placed them on the stone 
heaps, the purpose of which at once became 




8EA-CUCUMBEE. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 51 

clear to me. Close to this extemporized 
kitchen they then erected a shed, on four 
bamboo stakes, most likely for the purpose 
of drying the sea slugs in case of bad weather. 
Toward evening all preliminaries were fin- 
ished, and the following morning we paid a 
visit to the fishermen, who gave us a friendly 
reception. Each proa had thirty-seven men 
on board, and carried six boats, which we 
found busily engaged in fishing. Seven or 
eight Malays, almost entirely naked, were 
diving near the ship to look for trepang at 
the bottom of the sea. The skipper alone 
stood upright and surveyed their labors with 
the keen eye of a master. 

" A burning sun scorched the dripping 
heads of the divers, seemingly without incom- 
moding them ; no European would have 
been able to pursue the work for any length 



52 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

of time. It was about noon, and the skip- 
per told us this was the best time for fishing, 
as the higher the sun, the more distinctly the 
diver is able to distinguish the trepang 
crawling at the bottom. About four in the 
afternoon the Malays had terminated their 
work, and before nightfall we saw their proas 
vanish from our sight." 

The Feejee Islands are one of the best 
fishing grounds for trepang, and notwith- 
standing the well-known reputation of the 
islanders for ferocity and cannibalism, many 
American and European speculators are 
engaged in the fisheries there. Capt. Wilkes 
describes the operations of an American who 
was carrying on the fisheries there on a large 
scale. Before beginning, the services of 
some chief must be secured, who undertakes 
the building of the house, and sets his 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 53 

dependents at work to fish. The usual price 
is a whale's tooth for a hogshead of the 
animals, just as they are taken on the reef; 
but they are also bought with muskets, pow- 
der, balls, vermilion, blue beads, and cotton 
cloth of the same color. 

When the animals are brought on shore, 
they are measured into bins containing about 
fifty hogsheads, where they remain until next 
day. They are then cut along the belly for 
a length of three or four inches, and thrown 
into boilers, two men attending each pot, 
and relieving one another, so that the work 
may go on night and day. After draining 
they are next stretched on frame-work over 
slow fires for several days, when, being thor- 
oughly dried, they are packed for transpor- 
tation to Canton. 

A thorough knowledge of the native char- 



54 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

acter is essential to success, and vigilance 
must never be relaxed. No large canoes 
should ever be allowed to remain alongside 
the vessel, and a chief of high rank should 
be kept on board as a hostage, since these 
savages often attempt to cut off vessels. 
One of the most frequent methods is to dive 
and cut the cable, just before daybreak 
when the wind is blowing on shore. The 
moment the vessel strikes the reefs it is 
treated as a prize sent by the gods, and the 
crew murdered, roasted, and devoured. 

We have shown how a coral reef is formed. 
First, over beds of coral growing upward, the 
waves have dashed, grinding off fragments of 
rock and sand, which they have piled up in 
among the growing corals until they have 
formed a reef which in time reaches above 
the sea level. The formation of a coral island 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



55 



is precisely similar, ex- 
cept that instead of en- 
closing a mountainous 
island, the barrier reefs 
enclose a lagoon. This 
is the first stage in the 
history of a coral island, 
a barrier reef and with- 
in it a lagoon. As time 
goes on, and the ac- 
cumulation on the reef |j| 
increases, some seeds, 
wafted by the winds, fall 
into the sand and take 
root, and soon the encir- 
cling reef has in places 
a belt of verdure upon 
it as in this picture. 
On the beach may 




56 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



often be seen vast fragments of coral rock 
such as the foregoing, which was over eight 
feet square. Sometimes these blocks, by the 




action of the water, have been worn into fan- 
tastic shapes, while in other cases they lie 
shapeless masses on the beach. 




Outside of these coral reefs, the waters 
deepen rapidly. Often at a distance of a thou- 
sand feet seaward, the sounding line will de- 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 57 

scend fifteen hundred feet without even then 
reaching bottom. From careful calculation 
it is estimated that in many of these reefs 
the coral formations are two thousand feet in 
depth. But we have seen that coral makers 
cannot exist at a greater depth than one 
hundred and twenty feet. How then was the 
bottom of these reefs formed? 

If we turn back to the picture of an island 
on page 42, we shall see, close to the shore, 
what we have already described as a fring- 
ing reef. Let us now suppose that the island 
thus surrounded with a fringing reef, com- 
mences to sink, slowly settles down, and 
finally disappears beneath the waves. If this 
subsidence should go on only so fast as the 
coral grows upward, it is evident that gradu- 
ally the fringing reef would change into a 
barrier reef; the barrier reef would be farther 



58 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

and farther from the shore, and finally the 
barrier reef would not encircle an island but 
a lagoon. This is precisely the way in which 
coral islands are formed, each one rests upon 
a sunken island, and each has originally been 
a fringing reef. So when, as is sometimes the 
case, we find a barrier reef ten miles distant 
from land, we know that formerly solid 
ground covered the ten miles of sea, and that 
it has all sunk beneath the waves. 

These changes of level are by no means 
uncommon in the Pacific. The islands on 
which the coral reefs are built, are of volcanic 
origin, and while some have sunk down, and 
are still sinking, others are now stationary ; 
while others again, after sinking slowly for 
ages, have by some new convulsion been ele- 
vated to nearly their old position. 

We have here an example of this. The 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



59 



island shown in this picture is formed entirely 



of coral, and is two 
hundred and fifty feet 
in height above the sea 
level. For ages it had 
gone on slowly but 
surely settling down, I 
for its height, two hun- 
dred and fifty feet, 
twice the depth that 
coral can live beneath )] 
the surface, shows that 
its formation had been 
a long and weary pro- 
cess. Let us stop and 
see how long it had 
been. Supposing that 
the original island is 
now as years ago just 



l:Jf 






60 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

level with the sea, and the two hundred and 
fifty feet of coral are all that has been formed. 
Now we do not know certainly, as we have 
already said, what is the yearly growth of coral, 
but in the most favorable case known, it was 
three inches a year. This mass of coral must 
have taken then for every foot of growth four 
years, or for the time of its complete forma- 
tion one thousand years ; so that for ten long 
centuries it had been gradually sinking till 
came the sudden convulsion that threw it up 
above the sea. 

If this subsidence takes place at a faster 
rate than the growth of the coral, the animal 
dies and the reef building stops. Many such 
instances are known, and such reefs are called 
dead reefs. Their presence and character 
can of course be known only by sounding, as 
they are always at least one hundred and 
twenty-five feet below the sea level. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 6 1 

Coral, when analyzed, is found to consist 
almost entirely of the same components as 
ordinary limestone or marble, though it is 
generally a little harder and more brittle 
than they, as is shown by the ringing sound 
given out when it is struck by the hammer. 
In old times, it was supposed that it was 
comparatively soft in the water, and hardened 
on exposure to the air, an error which proba- 
bly arose from mistaking coral still covered 
by the soft tissues of the animal for the rock 
itself. 

Many speculations have been made, to 
account for the presence of the lime of which 
coral is formed, since in sea water but a small 
quantity of lime is held in solution. Some 
have supposed the existence of carbonic acid 
springs, though there is no proof of their 
existing in the region in which corals abound, 



62 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

while others have brought forward equally 
improbable causes. Science and study have 
not as yet discovered the secret source from 
which the lime is derived. We know only 
that from the sea-water, and the food of the 
polyp, the coral rock is formed, and that it is 
by the same process as that by which the 
bones in man are formed. 



CHAPTER III. 

r I ^HE geographical position of coral reefs 
is determined by several circumstances. 
As we have already said, the temperature of 
the water must not fall below sixty-eight 
degrees in the coldest month of the year. 
Nor can coral grow where the shores are 
abrupt and deep, since they cannot exist at a 
greater depth than one hundred and twenty- 
five feet nor near the mouths of rivers, since 
the mud brought down by the current is fatal 
to their existence. The presence of volcanic 
heat, too, is fatal to them ; and as many of 
the islands of the Pacific are of volcanic origin, 
and still agitated at times by throes when 
eruptions take place beneath the sea, it is no 



64 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

uncommon thing to find beds of coral whence 
all life is gone, the animals having been killed 
by the excessive heat of the water. 

This is shown in the case of Hawaii, one of 
the Hawaiian groups, which is still an active 
volcano. Around it are scarcely any signs 
of coral life, while other islands of the same 
group, where volcanic action has been long 
extinct, are surrounded with reefs. 

From what we have said as to the tem- 
perature of sixty-eight degrees being the 
minimum under which coral reefs can be 
formed, it might be imagined that two straight 
lines drawn around the earth, one above and 
one below the equator, would include all 
coral reefs. But this is far from being the 
case. In the Atlantic Ocean, for instance, on 
the coast of Africa, the region of reefs is 
only eighteen degrees in width, while on the 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 65 

American coast it is forty-eight degrees in 
width ; and in the Pacific, while it is only 
twenty-five degrees wide on the American 
coast, it is forty-four on the Asiatic. This 
great difference is caused by oceanic currents, 
and these in turn are largely determined by 
the shape of the coasts. So when a current 
from the polar seas, with icy waters, comes 
southward, it narrows the limits of the coral 
makers, and when the warm Gulf Stream, 
bearing the heated waters of the tropics, goes 
northward, it extends their limits far beyond 
their natural boundary. 

The Pacific Ocean is especially the site 
of coral islands. A glance at the map will 
show that to the north and east of Australia 
the ocean is everywhere dotted with them: 
some small in extent, while there is in one 
instance a single reef reaching four hundred 



66 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

miles. Nearly all the islands of this region 
give evidence of volcanic action, bearing on 
their summits the sharp, ragged outlines of 
extinct craters, or as is often the case, being 
at the present time in constant and active 
operation. When we look over this vast 
region, thousands of miles in breadth, and see 
these many coral reefs, the monuments of 
buried lands, the imagination has no difficulty 
in believing that here once was a vast conti- 
nent now sunk and lost beneath the sea. 

In the Atlantic Ocean we find several large 
coral reefs. Off the Florida coast is an exten- 
sive one. The principal island of the group 
is Key West, a United States military station, 
and here the highest land is not twenty feet 
above high tide. A brackish water is pro- 
cured by wells some fifteen feet in depth, 
sunk in the coral rock, and as the island is 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 67 

very limited in extent, and almost destitute 
of vegetation, it can readily be imagined that 
to be assigned to duty there is not a matter 
for congratulation to any army officer. 

A very valuable assistant in the labor of 
forming land is here found in a tree — the 
mangrove. It would be difficult to imagine 
a plant better adapted to island making than 
the mangrove. Its long, pendulous seeds fall 
into the shallow water, stick in the soft mud, 
and take root; the bud proceeding from the 
opposite extremity soon shoots up above the 
water, and sends down branches almost per- 
pendicularly into the mud ; these take root, 
and produce other trees, and so on. Besides 
these, lateral shoots are given off, and at 
a distance of three or four feet enter the 
water and take root ; from the part above 
water others proceed, and take a similar 



68 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

stride ; and in this way they often trayel 
twenty or thirty yards from the parent stem. 
Sea-weed and drift-wood become entangled 
among the stems, and very soon a permanent 
island is formed. 

To the eastward of the Florida reefs, at a 
distance of about a hundred miles, lie the 
Bahama Islands. They are, with few excep- 
tions, nearly unhabitable reefs, the terror of 
the mariner; for many a good ship is wrecked 
here every year. The principal island of the 
group, however, New Providence, supports a 
large negro population ; while the town of 
Nassau, on its western side, carries on quite 
an active business and presents a decidedly 
gay appearance, especially when, after a wreck, 
its shops are decked with festoons of gaudy 
calicoes, the damaged spoils of the wreckers. 

The island has almost no soil at all; the 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 69 

stunted trees and the herbage which cover it 
grow out of the white coral rock which, worn 
and seamed by time and only partly hidden 
by verdure, suggests to the stranger a painful 
likeness to human bones and skulls. Where 
the gardens are made about the houses of 
the rich, a trench is first cut out of the rock 
with a hatchet, and then soil is procured from 
a distance. 

But however dismal a picture this may 
present of the island as a place for a perma- 
nent home, the winter visitor is apt to con- 
sider it almost an Eden. For here he is cer- 
tain that every morning his opening eyes will 
rest on the sunlight flickering through the 
leaves, and pleasant drives in the cool of the 
afternoon or sailing in the fresh breezes of 
the morning, take the place of the chilling 
east winds and the snows of the winter he has 
left behind him. 



70 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

A short distance out beyond the wharves 
of the town lies a long and narrow reef, form- 
ing the outer barrier of the harbor, and 
against it, after a storm or high wind, the 
ocean waves dash furiously — rising high in air, 
to fall back as foam on the rocks below. 

As so much has been said of the agency 
of ocean waves in forming coral reefs and 
islands, and so much stress has been laid on 
their enormous power, it seems not out of place 
to give some instance of what that power 
really is. The Bell Rock Light-house is off 
the coast of Scotland, and rises to a height of 
one hundred and twelve feet above the tide. 
It is no uncommon thing for the entire struc- 
ture, to its highest stone, to be completely 
buried in spray, so that the light temporarily 
disappears. 

In 1807, during the erection of this light- 
3* 
i 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 71 

house, six large blocks of granite, which had 
been landed on the reef, were removed by the 
sea and thrown over a rising ledge to the 
distance of forty or fifty feet, and an anchor 
weighing twenty-two hundredweight was cast 
upon the surface of the rock. 

The great storm of 1824, which carried 
away part of the breakwater at Plymouth, 
lifted huge masses of rock, from two to five 
tons in weight, from the bottom of the 
weather side, and rolled them fairly to the top 
of the pile. One block of limestone weighing 
seven tons was washed round the western 
extremity of the breakwater and swept to a 
distance of one hundred and fifty feet. 

Along the English coast especially are 
seen examples of the destructive work of 
the ocean waves. Sir Charles Lyell, in 1829, 
made investigations at Sherringham, and 



72 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

found that the water was twenty feet in 
depth in a certain part of the harbor of that 
town, where, forty-eight years before, a cliff 
was standing bearing on its summit several 
houses, all of which had been destroyed by 
the terrible hammer of the sea. Near the 
coast of Kent stood, in the time of the Roman 
occupation of Britain, Reculver, a then impor- 
tant military station. In the time of Henry 
the Eighth it was still a mile from the sea ; 
but now it has entirely disappeared. The 
Roman walls, built to stand for ages, did 
sturdy battle with the waves for several years, 
until they were undermined and fell; and 
soon the old church, with its two tall spires, 
was abandoned to the sea. 

When we read of such Titan-like labors 
it is no longer difficult to see how the huge 
blocks of coral are forced loose and tossed 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



73 



upon the beach, to add to the growing reef; 

nor do we wonder at 

any of the strange 

forms which are the 

result of the wave 

action on the soft 

coral rock. 

In addition to the 
reefs we have men- 
tioned, others exist to 
the northward of the 
Bahamas, where the 
Bermuda Islands form 
the northern limit of 
reef growth, and to 
the south, where they 
are found among the 
West Indies and off 
the coast of Brazil. The East India seas, too 




74 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

are not without their reefs, but those which 
we have particularly mentioned are the most 
important of all. 

Many of the coral reefs and islands of the 
Pacific are inhabited ; some very densely. 
For instance, one called Taputeuea has only 
six square miles of habitable ground, and has 
a population of seven thousand people. 
Other islands, being nearly bare reefs, do not 
afford any resting place for human beings. 
The people that inhabit them are savages ; 
some are cannibals, and all are intensely 
ignorant and idolatrous. 

As may be readily imagined from what 
has been said of the coral islands and of the 
mode of their formation, but little vegetable 
life is found upon them. In all, only about 
thirty different species of plants flourish ; and 
yet the natives make these of use in ways such 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 75 

as we, who live in more favored lands, should 
never dream possible. Take, for example, 
the cocoa-nut tree, which is almost always 
found where any vegetable life at all exists. 
From its trunk are made the beams of houses, 
and the weapons of the people ; the long 
foliage, when dried, forms excellent material 
for thatching the roofs ; while the finer leaves, 
split and well oiled, are made into aprons and 
petticoats for the women. Mats, too, are, 
woven from them, either as a covering or to 
spread upon the ground. From the hard 
rind of the fruit are cut cups and dishes for 
water or food, while the fruit itself, in the 
various stages of growth, affords a cooling 
drink, and, later on, a rich milk. A plentiful 
oil, too, is obtained from the nut, with which 
the natives are accustomed to anoint their 
bodies, and those of strangers whom they 



76 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

wish to treat with especial attention. The 
husk of the nut yields a tough mass of fibres 
excellently adapted to tie together the beams 
of houses where nails are not to be had ; 
while, finally, from the bud itself, before the 
fruit is formed, is obtained a large quantity 
of a sweet liquor from which a species of 
molasses is made, or, if fermentation is al- 
lowed, a species of rum. 

Birds abound about many of the coral 
reefs, and are often of the most beautiful 
colors. From the fact that many of the 
islands are uninhabited, and seldom visited 
by strangers, they are almost ignorant of fear. 
Professor Dana speaks of one of the islands 
of the Paumotus group, where no native had 
ever been, and where the birds were so tame 
that they took them from the trees as they 
would fruit. 



THE BUILBERS OF THE SEA. 77 

Another visitor to these islands of the 
Pacific, writing of the birds at considerable 
length, says : 

" From fifteen to twenty varieties of birds 
may be distinguished among those frequent- 
ing the islands ; of which the principal are 
gannets and boobies, frigate-birds, tropic 
birds, tern, noddies, petrels, and some game 
birds, as the curlew, snipe, and plover. Of 
tern there are several species. These fre- 
quent the island twice in the year, for the pur- 
pose of breeding. They rest on the ground, 
making no nests, but selecting tufts of grass, 
where such may be found, under which to lay 
their eggs. I have seen acres of ground 
thus thickly covered by these birds, whose 
numbers might be told by millions. Between 
the breeding seasons they diminish considera- 
bly in numbers, though they never entirely 



78 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

desert the island. They are expert fishers, 
and venture far out to sea in quest of prey. 
The noddies are also very numerous. They 
are black birds, somewhat larger than pi- 
geons, with much longer wings, and are very 
simple and stupid. They burrow holes in 
the guano, in which they live and raise their 
young, generally inhabiting that part of the 
deposit which is shallowest and driest. 
Their numbers seem to be about the same 
throughout the year. The gannet and 
booby, two closely allied species, are repre- 
sented by two or three varieties. They are 
large birds, and great devourers of fish, which 
they take very expertly, not only catching 
those that leap out of the water, but diving 
beneath the surface for them. They are very' 
awkward and unwieldy on land, and may be 
easily overtaken and captured, if indeed they 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 8l 

attempt to escape at all on the approach of 
man. They rest on trees wherever there is 




STORMY PETRELS. 

opportunity, but in these islands they collect 
in great groups on the ground, where they 



82 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

lay their eggs and raise their young. One 
variety, not very numerous, has the habit of 
building up a pile of twigs and sticks, twenty 
or thirty inches in height, particularly where 
material of that sort is at hand, on which 
they make their nests. When frightened, 
these birds disgorge the contents of their 
stomachs, the capacity of which is sometimes 
very astonishing. They are gross feeders, 
and I have often seen one disgorge three or 
four large flying-fish, fifteen or eighteen inches 
in length. 

" The frigate-bird is large and rapa- 
cious, the tyrant of the feathered community. 
It lives almost entirely by piracy, forcing 
other birds to contribute to its support. 
These frigate-birds hover over the island con- 
stantly, lying in wait for fishing birds return- 
ing from the sea, to whom they give chase, 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 83 

and the pursued bird escapes only by disgorg- 
ing its prey, which the pursuer very adroitly 
catches in the air. They also prey upon 
flying-fish and others that leap from sea to 
sea, but never dive for fish. 




THE GANNEl'S. 

" Besides these, are the tropic birds, which 
are found in considerable numbers on islands 
where there are large blocks or fragments of 
beach rock scattered over the surface, under 



84 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

which they burrow out nests for them- 
selves. 

" Some of the social habits of these birds 
are w r orthy of remark. The gannets and 
boobies usually crowd together in a very 
exclusive manner. The frigate-birds likewise 
keep themselves distinct from other kinds. 
The tern appropriate to themselves a certain 
portion of the island ; each family collects in 
its accustomed roosting-place, but all in peace 
and harmony. The feud between the fishing 
birds and their oppressors, the frigate-birds, 
is only active in the air ; if the gannet or 
booby can but reach the land and plant its 
feet on the ground, the pursuer gives up the 
chase immediately. ,, 

If we could plunge beneath the waves 
that dash upon the coral isles, we should see 
many strange and beautiful forms of animal 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 85 

life. Here are the sponges, covering the 
bottom of the sea with a carpet of many 




THE BANDWORM. 



colors, while in and out among them glide 
hundreds of species of marine worms, (Annel- 
lides) of rare beauty. Possessing every tint 



86 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

of the rainbow, they partly swim, and partly 
crawl over the sands, hiding themselves 
beneath them on the approach of an enemy. 
Some are so small as to be only an inch in 
length, while one, the great Bandworm, is from 
thirty to forty feet long. It is about half an 
inch broad, flat like a ribbon, of brown or 
violet color, and smooth and shining like 
lacquered leather. Among the loose stones, 
or in the hollows of the rocks, where he prin- 
cipally lives on minute shells that attach 
themselves to submarine bodies, this giant 
worm forms a thousand seemingly inextrica- 
ble knots, which he is continually unravelling 
and tying. When, after having devoured all 
the food within his reach, or from some other 
cause, he desires to shift his quarters, he 
stretches out a long, dark-colored ribbon, with 
a head like that of a snake, but without its 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 87 

wide mouth or dangerous fangs. The eye of 
the observer sees no contraction of the 
muscles, no apparent cause or instrument of 
locomotion ; but the microscope teaches us 
that he glides along by the help of minute 
vibratory cilia, with which his whole body is 
covered. He hesitates, he tries here and 
there, until at last, and often at a distance of 
fifteen or twenty feet, he finds a stone to 
his taste ; whereupon he slowly unrolls his 
length, to convey himself to his new resting- 
place, and while the entangled folds are 
unravelling themselves at one end, they form 
a new Gordian knot at the other. 

Some of these marine worms form for 
themselves houses out of particles of sand, 
and shells of a long and tubular shape, in 
which they live, and from which they pro- 
trude the head only. Such are the scarlet 



88 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 



Serpulae. Upon their head they bear long 
and brilliantly colored tentacles, looking very 




SCARLET SERPULAE. 



like a bunch of flowers, with which they seize 
and hold their prey. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 89 

Here, too, is to be seen the sea-urchin, 
looking like a gigantic chestnut burr, an oval 



SEA URCHIN AND ROSY FEATHER STAR. 

ball covered with long sharp spines, each one 
of which sets firmly into a socket on the hard 
shell, inside of which the animal lives. This 



90 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

shell is indeed a beautiful example of the 
wisdom of the great Creator, for it is formed 
of hundreds of small sections welded together, 
so that the house grows by continual enlarge- 
ment as its owner grows. The exactness of 
every portion of this house is seen after put- 
ting the shell into fresh water, where after a 
time it falls apart, showing each of the sec- 
tions which helped to form it. 

The Rosy-feather-star, too, in all its bril- 
liant colors, is found beneath the coral wave. 
With its long and branching flower-like ex- 
tremities, who would ever imagine that it was 
near akin to its more substantial neighbor 
the Echinus? 

Hundreds of other beautiful and strange 
forms of animal life lie scattered through 
these ocean depths, to give the names only 
of which would take more space than we 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 93 

have to spare. It is only when we leave the 
lower orders of animal life and pass to man, 
the highest, that we fail to find the same rare 
development ; for the Coral Islander, under 
the most favorable circumstances, is merely a 
savage — ignorant, superstitious, and often can- 
nibal. Where missionaries have labored and 
taught, their condition has greatly changed 
for the better, as in the case of the Sandwich 
Islands, where a whole nation has been con- 
verted ; but their condition, where they have 
not come in contact with white men, is one 
of vast ignorance. 

In 1840, the United States Government 
sent out an expedition to explore the coral 
islands of the Pacific. In the course of their 
voyages they discovered an island which had 
never before been visited by white men. The 
natives came off to the ship in canoes, but 



94 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

could not by any means be persuaded to go 
on board. They took the ship's company to 
be gods who had visited them from the sun, 
and feared to come on board lest the ship 
should fly away into the sky, and bear them 
with her. On a cannon being fired, they fled 
in great haste to the shore. Boats were low- 
ered from the ship, and a party visited the 
island. The savages received them with 
great deference, prostrating themselves, rub- 
bing noses, embracing, and showing other 
marks of affection and reverence. 

The visitors inspected their dwellings, 
which, rudely made and thatched, were scat- 
tered about under the cocoa-nut trees. 

Their houses were bare of almost all arti- 
cles of furniture, and indeed of the common- 
est household implements, and would form 
but scanty shelter against the storms of our 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 97 

northern winter. Here, however, there is no 
winter: perpetual summer reigns. During 
certain seasons more rain falls than at other 
times ; the vegetation is more luxuriant ; but 
at no time are the trees without verdure, and 
cold and frost are unknown. 

No traces of fire could be found in any of 
the houses, nor were there any arrangements 
for cooking ; and from this it was supposed 
that the people must eat their food raw. 
Another thing that led to the same belief 
was the great wonder and alarm they showed 
at seeing smoke issue from the mouths of 
some of the party who had cigars. 

The principal building was called in their 
language " tui tokelau," or the house of their 
god. It was built on the same general plan 
as their own houses, but was much larger in 
size, and furnished much more elaborately 



98 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

Outside were two idols, as shown in the pic- 
ture. One was about fourteen feet high, and 
was closely wrapped in matting, while beside 
it was another smaller one, wrapped in the 
same way. 

Notwithstanding their reverence for their 
guests, as visitors from the sun, the natives 
did not hesitate to steal from them in the 
most open way ; and one gentleman, who had 
given a case of instruments to one to hold, 
was amazed to see him set off with it on a 
full run, and had a long chase before he could 
recover it. They were very anxious to pro- 
cure fish-hooks and knives, the use of which 
they saw at once, and offered for them woven 
matting and boxes which they had cut out 
of wood, using sharks' teeth for knives. 

On the lagoon side of the island they had 
built out over the water, houses supported 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. IOI 

on poles, and thatched over to shelter their 
canoes. 

These canoes are objects of especial care, 
from the difficulty with which they are ob- 
tained. The wood of the cocoa-nut tree being 
far too soft to make boats of, the canoes are 
formed entirely of logs brought to the beach 
by ocean currents ; and to the ignorant peo- 
ple who know of no other lands beside their 
own, they seem direct gifts from their gods. 

What must be the lives led by these peo- 
ple, knowing nothing of the world without 
them ; of the broad continents, the mountains 
and rivers ; seeing only their narrow strip of 
land and the broad expanse of never-chang- 
ing sea : their knowledge of manufactures the 
weaving of mats, their only tools those made 
of sharks' teeth and stone. In many cases 
the effect of such a life is shown in their Ian- 



102 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

guage. They have no such words as moun- 
tain, river, hill, plain, and their limited 
vocabulary tells only of the poverty of their 
lives. Their situation, too, appears to act 
directly on their moral nature. From the 
missionaries who have labored to teach them 
of a better worship than that of idols, and 
whose efforts have met with wonderful suc- 
cess, we learn of many strange customs which 
were in vogue before Christianity took root. 
Among the Fejee Islanders, for instance, when 
a child was born, it was the custom for a rel- 
ative to name it at once. If for any cause 
this was omitted the child was thought to be 
an outcast, and its mother destroyed it. 

It was a common habit for a son to 
notify a parent that it had become a burden 
and must die, or for an old person to decide 
that he was tired of living. On such occa- 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 105 

sions the friends assembled as if to a funeral, 
with weeping and wailing. The person who 
was to die walked at the appointed time to 
the grave. Here each member of the com- 
pany bade him farewell. He then chose 
whether he would be strangled or buried 
alive. If the former, a cord was twisted 
around his neck, and his life was soon ended ; 
if the latter, he was assisted into the grave by 
his friends, his head was wrapped in matting 
and the earth was quickly piled upon him. 
On one occasion a native came to a mission- 
ary, and asked him to pray for his mother 
whose funeral was about to take place. Sup- 
posing that the woman was dead, the 
missionary offered to perform a service over 
her grave and joined the procession. Not 
seeing her body being carried, he asked as to 
the cause of its absence, and was astonished 



Io6 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

to have pointed out to him an old woman 
with a cheerful countenance who was walking 
with the others. While he was demanding 
explanation the grave was reached, the party 
halted, and before he fairly knew what was 
about to happen, the cord had been applied 
to the woman's neck and she was a corpse. 

Even deformed people and invalids are 
made away with in the same summary way. 
The missionary just spoken of knew of a case 
where a boy whose leg had been bitten off by 
a shark, though he had been nursed carefully 
by some white people, was strangled by his 
friends for no other reason than that he was 
thus deformed ; while he with difficulty res- 
cued a servant who for the crime of being ill 
was about to meet the same treatment from 
his friends. 

These Fejee Islanders were cannibals as 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. I07 

lately as thirty or forty years ago, and so 
fond of human beings as food that they not 
only ate those who fell in battle against them, 
but their chief made no hesitation whenever 
he felt so disposed of killing a subject for a 
feast. 

The religious beliefs of these people, be- 
fore the missionaries labored among them, 
was strange indeed. The Fejee Islanders 
worshipped many gods. Chief of these was 
Ndengei, who had the form of a serpent, and 
before whom the spirits of the dead were 
summoned to appear. Not all were able to 
present themselves, however, for in the path 
to his dominions stood a huge giant armed 
with a club, who attacked every one that ap- 
proached. If by ill fortune the dead man 
was struck, he could go no farther but must 
return and wander in misery about the earth ; 



108 THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

if however he eluded the giant he passed on 
to a life of bliss. A virtuous life did not help 
any one to pass this dread opponent. The 
good and bad alike were attacked and luck 
alone decided. One valorous chief was be- 
lieved to have gained heaven by his ingenu- 
ity. As he approached and saw his danger, 
he took up his weapon which was buried 
with him and hurled it at the giant, who was 
so much engaged in dodging the missile that 
the chief rushed by him in safety. The two 
sons of Ndengei, formed the second order of 
gods. They were stationed at the door of their 
father's abode, and transmitted to him the 
prayers of the dead spirits. A third order 
was formed by his grandchildren, while a 
fourth was composed of his more distant 
connections. 

Besides these gods, they worshipped evil 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. IO9 

spirits, who lived in Mbulu, or hell. Lothia 
was the chief, while near him was Samuialo, 
who sitting upon the brink of a great chasm, 
seized the incoming spirits, and hurled them 
into a fiery gulf below. The way to these 
dreary regions was through the sea and they 
lay far beneath the world. 

These gods were served by priests called 
ambati, and small temples or mbures were 
built, one or more in every town, in which 
their rites were celebrated. Their influence 
over the common people was very great, for 
they claimed to repeat a message which had 
come direct from the gods. The ceremony 
of delivering such a message was somewhat 
like this. An offering was brought to the 
priest, a hog, or yams, or an elephant's tooth, 
and an answer was asked as for instance, 
whether the war with a neighboring island 



IIO THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. 

would be successful. The priest stood quietly 
in sight of all, looking upon the ground ; 
soon a spasm would seize him, — indicating 
that the god was entering his body, — his eyes 
would become bloodshot, and his body would 
writhe in violent convulsions. Then he would 
shout forth a message which to the credulous 
beholders seemed absolutely sacred. Gradu- 
ally the spasm would die away, and soon 
the man would strike the ground with a club 
to denote that the god had departed and that 
he was again a man. 

Every chief had his priest, and it is to be 
feared that he, and not the gods, dictated 
the message which the ignorant thought so 
sacred. Dependent on gifts, the priests were 
at times reduced to want. This however was 
never severe, for they could easily terrify 
their followers into supplying their wants. 



THE BUILDERS OF THE SEA. HI 

A favorite way was to threaten to eat them, 
an announcement which never failed to bring 
them food. 

These barbarous rites and false religions 
have died away To-day, there is hardly an 
island in the Pacific where trie Christian 
religion is not now the belief of nearly all the 
people, and where the worship of idols is not 
a thing of the past. 



